Winner!

Well, let's be honest, I had a pretty bad day today. My neighbor called yesterday to let me know that our renters have three giant dogs living at the house. I couldn't get ahold of my realtor for days. And much much more. But when I left for my "major award" ceremony, things started looking up.

I had to be there at 6PM and the drawing was at 6:30PM. Since no one was able to come and support me (ahem..?), I loaded up the children and headed out to the party.

We were pretty excited to meet a real life princess ("Miss Utah"). The guy from the newspaper wanted Gwen to pose with her for a picture, but she wouldn't. Bentley, however, was more than willing.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that in addition to my $50 Dan's gift card, free gallon of milk, container of cottage cheese, package of sausage, Fat Boy golf balls and package of Fat Boy products, I also got a nice binder full of coupons from your friend and mine, the grocery guru!

He told me that if I won the $5,000 he would help me turn it into $15,000. Sounded fair to me! Plus the binder was one that you could plug your mp3 player into and it had speakers in the actual binder. Who wouldn't want to listen to their "binderpod" while shopping?

A radio station was there and I spun the wheel and won tickets to the fair (woot!)



I scored a snazzy Fat Boy shirt too, but I couldn't put it on right then. What with wearing the baby and all.

And so the question on everybody's mind is, did I win?

Well

I've got good news for you

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that guy is really. really. happy.

And it's probably just as well that I didn't win. I mean, who needs $5000 worth of groceries anyway? Plus it's not like our taxes aren't complicated enough already. My April 15th 2010 is going to be a lot less stressful than that guys. That's for dang sure.

So as to not walk away empty handed, we all ate FatBoys. Yes, even those of us who don't eat sugar. Especially those of us who don't eat sugar, actually.

Because when you come the closest you are probably ever going to get to getting a giant check handed to you, but then you don't actually get the giant check handed to you, you can't just walk away empty handed.

So, though the stresses of being a landlord and a renter are still weighing heavily on my shoulders, I had a nice evening.

And the children probably had a better one. What with Bentley nearly drowning himself in free Rootbeer, chocolate milk and fatboys.

And at the end of it all when Blaine took Gwen to the restroom and was waiting outside the door with her he could hear her talking to Miss Utah. For like twenty minutes.

And if that isn't a major award, I most certainly do not know what is.

Reason #923,495 that Jeannie is the awesomest person ever.

First of all, what kind of person reads a blog about two rascally dogs and then voluteers to take them for two weeks over CHRISTMAS?

And then volunteers to adopt the rascaliest puppy.

And then hooks you up with discount Schlitterbahn tickets

and then lets you eat the only strawberry on her strawberry plant

and then watches the other rascally puppy again.

And then the puppy escapes again.

And then you move away.

And then she does something like this.

Jeannie, that's who.

I'll love you forever Jeannie.

And Ralphie.

And Texas.

And Jeannie.

And Ralphie.

Infinity.

Keeping up with the Joneses.

Shauna J. She's a friend of a friend. Well actually now she is just a regular friend. But she used to be a friend of a friend.

Back when I had a grasp on my life, when I felt I was in control, I started to consider homeschooling Gwen. Meleah told me to contact Shauna. A friend who used to live in Texas but moved away.

So I did contact Shauna. And Shauna sent me the most wonderful e-mail about why she homeschools. It was awesome.

Before long Shauna and I got to chatting about other things. Important things, not important things.

Soon we realized that when she lived in Texas she had had the same floor plan that I currently had. Weird.

Weirder still? When I found out I was unexpectedly expecting, we realized that Shauna's kids were the same gender and spacing as mine.

It was almost creepy.

I like baking bread. Shauna likes baking bread.

I get horrendous morning sickness. Shauna gets horrendously even more morning sick than me.

She's afraid of heights. I'm afraid of planes.

I had to meet her. It wasn't like meeting a totally random, crazy Internet friend. One who really could be some fifty year old creep. Right? I mean, she was Meleah's friend! It was totally different than just meeting some random friend from the internet. Totally. I am anti random internet friend meeting (ahem, Mom) (MOM!).

So when we were here last year going to Disneyland I went and met Shauna.

Loved her. From the get go. She let me sit on her couch and vomit occasionally (as I had morning sickness) while she entertained my children.

So, I was pretty excited that moving to Utah I had a built in friend. One who misses Texas as much as I do. One who can reminisce how awesome Meleah is, how sweet Betsy is, how awesome the Millett's are. One who could lament that Utah doesn't have access roads on the freeways, that there are no gecko's on the side of the house at night, etc. etc.

It's been great! Shauna and I have been tearing Utah apart. We've gone to a cabin, to a farm, to Cabella's.

But the thing is...Shauna J. doesn't eat sugar. As in...ever. Not even in jam. Or peanut butter.

So I had to try it, right? I mean, if Shauna J. thinks it wise to not eat sugar, it has to be wise, right?

Plus she lost twenty pounds by simply taking sugar out of her diet.

Simply. Ha.

So, I pose to you this question. If you had to do without sweets or savories, for the rest of your life, which would you choose? Think carefully.

Because I am much more of a sweet person than a savory one. I mean, I am not opposed to either but the savories just aren't cutting it.

But I trust Shauna J.

Though she does enjoy running, something that I will probably never understand.

(It's okay though, she says I can ride my bike alongside).

Major Award

I'VE WON A MAJOR AWARD!

I am totally not kidding!

The other day I was minding my own business, shopping at the local grocery store and I saw a little box where you could enter to win a $5000 shopping spree. I thought, eh what have I got to lose?

So I entered

flash forward to today. I am sitting here in distress writing out checks to pay for Blaine's traffic ticket, my um...ticket, Ivy's hospital bill, insurance payments and security deposits. Feeling kind of down

but then Bryce from Fat Boy called and left a message!

I called him back to find that I didn't win the $5000....yet

BUT I did win a major award! A gift certificate to Dan's AND some free meadowgold products (which is awesome now that I am going without sugar for a month).

And I have to show up to the Sandy's Macey's on August 28th for the drawing to win the five grand! So come to Macey's and maybe if we bring enough karma I will win the five grand!

I've never won a major award before! It's stinking AWESOME!

Case Closed

Several months ago my neighbor Annie moved. Since she was going to be in a temporary place for a while she brought me her plants so I could tend them while she was transient. I loved the plants and did a half decent job keeping them alive and well.

As we were cleaning our house during our final days in Texas I called my neighbor, Angela, and recruited her to become the plant sitter upon my departure. Meanwhile, a couple days earlier, Annie had called Blaine and asked him to leave her plants with my other neighbor Cheryl. Blaine told me this after I had made ten trips across the street to Angela's house to drop off the plants.

I figured they would all figure it out later since they all see each other all the time.

Flash forward three weeks to my facebook inbox where I have a message waiting from Cheryl.

Cheryl tells me that someone has taken Annie's plants off of her front porch!

Sounds like the neighborhood has really gone to pot since I left, right? But what was Cheryl doing with the plants in the first place?

Let me explain....

about a week after we left Texas I got a call from our future renters asking if they could leave some of their things in our garage to store them until they officially moved in the next week. I was fine with that so Monse (future renter) loaded their stuff in the garage and left the plants outside.

A few days later Cheryl was walking by, saw the plants and figured they were Annie's plants and took them to her house to water and care for.

When Monse officially moved in she noticed her plants were missing and then noticed they were on one of the neighbor's front porches, so she took them back.

Cheryl notices the plants are gone and calls Annie to ask if she picked them up.

Annie had not picked them up.

Hence the hullaballoo.

I loved it! I bet Monse was thinking she moved into a pretty shady hood. I guess Cheryl went over and explained and now things are all settled and the plants remain unscathed at Angela's house.

Oh man...I miss that neighborhood!

Miracle on Plume Grass Place

Janssen was harrassing me this morning about not posting on my blog. Alright, mostly she just casually mentioned that I hadn't posted in a while, it's me who has been harassing myself about it.

The thing is, something happened. My world got rocked two weeks ago, and when I sit down and try to post something trivial or humorous or anything really it just feels fake. What happened is always on the forefront of my mind. Even when I start thinking about something else for a while I get snapped back to the reality, seriousness and gravity of that day. And that is when it becomes hard to breathe. Hard to eat. Hard to sleep.

It's not a story I am proud to share, excited to share, or that I am even willing to share (especially not in blog form).

Suffice it to say that I made a mistake and that mistake very, very easily could have cost Ivy her life. In fact. It should have cost that.

Though I am not up for going into the details and specifics, there are a few valuable lessons that I feel like I must share.

First, I know, more than I know anything, that miracles happen and that God has His hand in our lives. He is in control of everything. If it were not true Ivy would not be alive today. I was not deserving of a miracle, but I was granted one, I witnessed one. I lived one. And I feel like I need to share that with the world. Not only that I need to, I WANT to. I want to shout it from the rooftops. God lives!

Secondly, accidents and bad things happen. We all know that; we all know that I know that! But even still with all of my paranois, preparation and carefulness an accident still did happen. It can happen to anyone easily, even if you are careful. It only takes one time. One mistake. One moment when your mind is on something else and that moment can rock your world and change your life forever.

I have been blessed to feel gratitude. The moments of self accusation are few, the moments of self doubt are few. They are there, and when they hit they are more searing than anything I have ever felt; those moments are dark and terrifying. But I have been blessed with overwhelming sense of gratitude and that is the dominant emotion, and luckily gratitude is a warm, happy, good feeling. It's a testimony boosting, motivating, wonderful emotion. So I am grateful for that.

I apologize for being vague, but I felt I owe you an explanation for my absence in the blogosphere.

But fun posts are in the works--- I sat on a tube of sunscreen halfway through our drive to Utah and spent the rest of the trip in UV protected, slippery, coconut smelling jeans. Blaine's new office mate takes naps during lunch break on an actual cot in his office (am I the only person who finds that really funny? And resourceful!).

So don't give up on me just yet.

Oh and also go and give your kids a hug. My whole life has changed now that I know that Ivy is living on borrowed time, but the thing is, we all are. We're not promised anything and as wonderful and happy as things are now, things can change in an instant. Go on...get off the computer...play with your kids.